It was a truism that all civilizations were basically neurotic until they made contact with everybody else and found their place within the ever-changing meta-civilisation of other beings, because, until then, during the stage when they honestly believed they might be entirely alone in existence, all solo societies were possessed of both an inflated sense of their own importance and a kind of existential terror at the sheer scale and apparent emptiness of the universe.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Made some short cables from Theraband tubing and am now using them together with the Hook handles and longer cables. The combined resistance is great and provides a longer range of motion, working the all-important beginning pull. Did sets of 12 on the following exercises:

Standing overhead front press 185x5, 155x5, 135x7 - interesting that I'm still pretty strong on these (in relation to my all-time bests) despite not training standing front military press for almost a year now.

Today I did pulls at the gym near work. There's no platform there, so I had to lower the weights very carefully, which contributed to major lower back and hamstring soreness even before the session was done.

Went to the gym and warmed up for deadlifts... then I couldn't get to a platform. I couldn't get to a power rack. I couldn't even find a bar to do deadlifts off the floor. The gym was overcrowded with New Year resolutionists and 95-lb. power cleaners. I hung in there for about 30 minutes, then left.

At home I did "heavy" cable pulls for 12 reps instead, and felt much better. The exercises went as follows:

Didn't look like I was going to get much higher from the 455 lbs., so I stopped there. I forgot what a merciless exercise this is, the eccentric part even worse than the concentric because you also have to stop the bar mid-shin and avoid it crashing down on the pins at this weakest point. The day after my lower back was shot to hell.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Started off with 1 x 20 on the abductor machine and 2 x 10 on the leg extension, even though it wasn't a lower-body day. Also did 3 x 12 front chest pulls with cables before going to the gym. Strange sensation today, felt like shit but the weights felt light.

Incline press 240 lbs. x 3 sets x 6, 1 set x 7 (finally)

Bench press 265 lbs. x 8

Seated pulley row w scap shrug 4 sets x 6

Bradford press 3 sets x 5 (made it all the way up to 120 lbs. this time)